In May 2013, CRRC Georgia launched a new UNDP/EU-funded media monitoring project examining television news related to the upcoming presidential elections in fall 2013. The project will last until November 2013. CRRC is monitoring the evening news programs of Georgia’s most watched and trusted television channels (based on CRRC’s March 2013 political attitudes survey results) for coverage of political parties, government and presidential events, political and election processes, and for journalistic standards and ethics. The monitored channels are the Georgian Public Broadcaster’s Channel 1, Rustavi 2, Imedi, Maestro, Kavkasia, Channel 9, and Ajara TV.Monitoring has both quantitative and qualitative components. CRRC trained seven monitors who gather quantitative data on how much time is allocated to each monitored subject, what percent of the allocated time is direct speech about the subject at hand, and what the tone of their coverage is. The monitors are also identifying cases of biased coverage, deviations from good journalism practice, and the manipulative use of film, picture and sound.

The first report was written in the second half of June. It includes results from May 15- to June 15. The first month of monitoring showed that Georgian television channels are not working in the pre-election regime yet. The news is not focused on presidential candidates. During May 15 – June 15 all TV channels covered important news in their evening programs, but there were several cases in which certain channels omitted important news which could be related to their own political interests. Despite the fact that none of the channels are strongly biased towards any political group (meaning allocated time, positive or negative tones, montage, etc.), there are still some cases in which a channel’s political tendencies are obvious. Channel 9 and Imedi frequently covered the United National Movement, and former government and president in a negative tone. The same can be said about Kavkasia but with a less strong tone. Rustavi 2 covered the same subjects but with a positive tone. Maestro and the Georgian Public Broadcaster were not biased towards any groups, but maintained a neutral tone. Ajara TV lacked a critical approach and tended to cover local government news in a positive tone. The report in Georgian is attached here or also available at www.mediamonitor.ge.